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Recently I have been helping a lovely friend of mine, Margaret Carey, with setting up her newsletter and blog. She is off to East Timor volunteering her time in an NGO for a month or so. While she is away she asked if I could help with her next newsletter. That’s easy. The software we used sits in the cloud. Not the raining type of cloud. The cloud refers to the ability to use software and data on the internet instead of on your hard drive.
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So why PR?
I often get asked why PR? What can PR do for my business that advertising or marketing can’t. Whether you run a small or large business, have a start-up company, or simply expanding into a new country or geographical area, PR is an important tool for you.
Here is what I think…
Credibility – Public relations holds a powerful position in the communications suite. One of the major impacts of PR is media relations, which assists you in achieving editorial coverage. People in your target market may see editorial as an independent and objective evaluation of your company.
Due to the perceived objectivity of editorial coverage, PR is said to hold more credibility than other forms of marketing communication. Editorial coverage is trusted more than running an advertisement.
Cost Effectiveness – Public relations can be less expensive than other forms of paid communication, even if you hire an external public relations agency rather than performing this task in-house. Whilst you are paying for the services of a PR specialist, what you are achieving in the way of media coverage and changes in public perception may have otherwise cost you much more.
Exposure – Media coverage achieved through PR is likely to be more extensive than that which you would achieve through advertising, given a similar budget. Specialist PR people know which media to target for which message (and often have cultivated good contacts), what content the media want, when to pitch them which story to pitch and what is the best way to deliver your message.
Flexibility – Public relations has the benefits of being flexible in message content and being responsive to news. A skilled PR professional can turn around media releases in reaction to news or crisis situations within hours.
So what are the Twitter rules?
I was interviewed for TechMarketing magazine about the key rules for using Twitter, and I thought I would share it with you.
What would be your rules for your clients as to how to use Twitter?
Twitter is immediate and permanent. (Technically, you can delete a tweet but it hangs around). The key rule I tell my staff and clients is to only tweet something you will be happy to see on the internet now and in the future.
Twitter needs to be credible so obviously only tweet information that assists to build credibility of the brand and the organisation. If it doesn’t, then don’t tweet it.
The role of Twitter is to create relationships with your followers (and target audience) and relationships based on public slanging matches will not last. So if you are having a bad day – log out of twitter or hand it over to a colleague.
What are some of the advantages for PRs when it comes to using Twitter on behalf of their clients? What are some of the pitfalls?
We tweet and blog for our clients and for organisations that don’t have the in house expertise or resources, this works well.
Although transparency is important for some twitter accounts, take for example Kevin Rudd’s account – we want to know if he or one of his staff is tweeting. For most companies this isn’t necessary. It’s the quality of the tweets that build followers rather than who is doing the tweeting.
Quality is key and to figure out how to get that you need to develop a strategy. Asking what type of information would my followers want to read? How can we drive followers to the Facebook fan page? How personal do we go? etc
How would you advise a client to implement damage control in the event of a social media stuff-up?
Because social media is immediate, you need to be immediate in your response. Join in the conversation immediately. Be honest and explain the situation and what you are doing to fix it. Say you are listening – and actually listen – and act on the complaints. Here are some events coming up that we thought you might be interested in: LAN Brazilian Festa at Starlight Cinema The LAN Brazilian Festa returns for a second year to ME Bank Starlight Cinema, transforming North Sydney Oval into a mini Brazil. Starting at 4.00pm with everyone’s favourite Brazilian food, music, caipirinhas from the Sagatiba bar, football clinics and games, frescoball, kid’s activities, dance workshop and lots of fun. Film commences at sundown 28 February 2010 PRIA NSW is offering practitioners a fantastic opportunity to gain a detailed insight into the strategies behind last year’s most outstanding campaigns at a showcase event. 2 March 2010 Ignite Sydney Changingtools.com runs a course that aims to conquer the anxious, terrified and frustrated feelings associated with public speaking. This course will help you overcome any fear of public speaking. 15 March 2010 Relay for Life is a unique, overnight fundraising event! The three aims of the event are to celebrate survivors and carers of cancer; remember those lost to cancer; and to pledge a plan to make a change to fight cancer! 27- 28 March 2010
Do not go quiet, do not say no comment, let your followers know how often and when to expect a response or communication from you.
Upcoming events
Award Winning PR Case Studies Breakfast
Here some great speeches including Claire Moffat discussing how to connect to women using marketing and social media. Each speaker has 5 minutes on stage with 20 slides which rotate automatically after 15 seconds.
2 March 2010
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